Northern Publishers’ Fair 2024 at Central Library
Sarah-Clare Conlon, Literature Editor
It’s your annual chance to join readers and writers alike at this free event when 16 independent publishing houses will be setting out their stalls at Manchester Central Library for the sixth (we think!) Northern Publishers’ Fair, organised by Manchester’s own Fly On The Wall Press.
The organisers aim to celebrate and showcase independent publishing houses based in the North of England with “friendly publishers and cracking books”, says Isabelle Kenyon, managing director of Fly On The Wall Press, a social enterprise company and a not-for-profit publisher of anthologies, collections and chapbooks.
Spanning literary fiction, genre fiction, middle-grade and children’s, poetry and memoir, publishers attending include Manchester and Salford’s Carcanet Press, Comma Press, Confingo Publishing/Greenhouse Books, Flapjack Press, Nightjar Press, Saraband, plus Bent Key Publishing, Fine Press Poetry, Incline Press, Northodox Press, Peepal Tree Press and Vertebrate Publishing, Stairwell Books from York, UCLAN Publishing from Preston, and Sinoist Books featuring as international guest.
As well as perusing (and buying!) books, you’ll be able to network informally with like-minded literature enthusiasts, meet authors during book signings and chat to the publishers, who will be on hand to share their catalogues. You can also watch a printing press demonstration by Incline Press and take home a handmade bookmark or postcard – not to mention a Fly on the Wall Press goodie bag: a limited edition tote with two free mystery books and bookish goodies!
